Business Building Tools: Leads
You do not need to use ALL of the tools here, but only
use the ones you're comfortable with and those that fit YOUR marketing plan. I
do suggest you use as many of them as you can, however... just remember you
don't need to do everything at once. Pick one new tool a week and develop it
before moving on to the next.
Some of these tools also provide an
income opportunity so you can also develop your multiple streams of income.
Leads Are The LifeBlood of Your
Business
A steady flow of leads into your prospecting pipeline is
the lifeblood of being successful in your online business.
Your mailing
list or database of leads is your most valuable asset in my opinion.
Your mailing list is your entire business. Your list is your livelihood. Your
list is money in the bank. Your list is your audience. Serve them well and they
will give you the keys to riches! Remember this and you will do very well
marketing with email.
You might think of your online business as the
vehicle that can transport you to where you want to go... but, you need to put
gas in the tank to make your vehicle go.
Your gas in this business
is leads.
The more gas (or leads) you have, the further you'll
go... and conversely, no gas (or no leads) or too few leads, and you won't go
very far.
When you have a good leads list, you can find a decent amount
of business partners with an "average" sales message. But, if you have a bad
list, you won't enroll anyone no matter how good your sales message is.
MANAGE YOUR EXPECTATIONS: As a rule
of thumb, I believe the 80/20 Rule
applies: 80 percent of your leads will not even have the desire to become
financially successful. Only 20 percent will even be open to new opportunities.
A bad list is not "targeted." If the list contains email
addresses that have been picked at random, contains very old email addresses,
or has been oversold many times, the list is useless. Many of the low cost
($.02 - $.30) leads programs contain these kinds of useless leads. If you don't
know what the people in your list are interested in, you won't be able to sell
to them at all. You can try to "guess" what they would want to buy. Oversold
and old leads won't get many interested prospects, just complaints!
A good list is a "targeted" list of people who have joined the list
"willingly." You still have to match your offer to your list. And you can
only do this when you know what the people in your lists are interested in. A
list containing qualifying questions or survey answers can be helpful because
you can then sell them exactly what they want. There is no guesswork involved
and you will not upset anyone by sending them information they're not
interested in receiving.
|
You must
CONSISTENTLY load NEW "targeted" leads into your prospecting system if you are
to expect success. Then use a filtering system to sort out the "tire-kickers"
from the more serious prospects. |
 Building a "targeted"
email list of your own
Building a quality "targeted" list is the most
important thing you can do for your business.
Did you get
that?
Building a quality "targeted" list is the most important thing you
can do for your business. This is where the game begins... to find leads or to
find people to talk to.
The quality of your "opt-in" list will determine
the future success or failure of your online business.
If your business
is faltering - if your car is sputtering for lack of gas - if you're not seeing
much activity going on in your business.... the reason is most likely because
you are neglecting this very important part of building your
business.
There are lots of ways to build your very own "opt-in" lists
and I cannot cover them all here, but I will introduce you to some very basic
list building fundamentals that will get you started. Of course, some ways are
better than others because they are more efficient, easy, and cost-effective.
My advice to you is to use them all, or as many as you can to build your
list.
- Your Customer List
Unless this is your first
business, you probably have a list of people that have done business with you
in the past - your customers. These customer names and addresses will create
the best list you will ever own. You already have an established relationship
with them and they already know, like, and trust you. If your customers had a
good experience with you in the past, they would probably be more than willing
to buy from you again and again. In fact some of them are itching to buy from
you because you send targeted information to them on what they really want, not
just junk.
- Your "warm market"
I've discussed in another
area of this web site how to create your warm market
list.
- Referrals
If you don't have a customer email
list of your own yet, this technique is single handedly the next best thing. It
is one of the quickest ways to find targeted prospects and build your list in
the process. Here's how it works: You ask those people you already know... who
they know that might be interested in learning more about your products. Or,
you might find someone who has a downline from an existing/or recently defunct
mlm who will give you their list for building under them.
- "Opt-In" Visitors From Your Web Site - sometimes
called "Lead Capture"
This in one technique you absolutely must use if
you have a website. The technique is a very simple: You would place a "form" or
a simple "email" link on your website with a short message that tells visitors
to subscribe to your mailing list. In return for doing so, offer them something
for free! A free report, newsletter, or ebook will work great here.
The
reason why doing this right now is very important is because you are missing
out on a great opportunity to capture your web site visitor’s email
addresses. Since you already are spending time and money to promote your site,
why not get them to leave their email address with you before they leave and
never return again. Most visitors will not buy from you on their first visit.
Unless you provide this option on your web site you will lose most of these
prospects forever. Most of your marketing efforts and dollars will be spent on
classified ads, banner trades, search engines, etc. will go down the drain
forever.
If you are familiar with creating web sites and forms or know
someone who is, you can easily put a simple form anywhere in your web site. If
you don't know how to create them, most autoresponder services provide
subscribers the ability to easily create their very own web site with custom
lead capture forms connected to an autoresponder so people can get your free
report sent to them automatically within minutes of requesting it.
Lead
Capture is a PRIMARY strategy I use for building my prospecting list. In fact,
just about everything I am doing online is to create a steady flow of "opt-in"
subscribers using lead capture pages.
- Offline Advertising
If you are only using
"offline advertising" and don't do much online advertising, you can still get
email addresses from prospects. You can use whatever offline advertising works
best for you (direct mail, classified ads, radio, TV, etc.) and start including
your "free email report" offer in these advertisements. Get those email
addresses from as many prospects that are willing to email you and let them
opt-out whenever they choose. Using offline advertising to drive traffic to
your online lead capture pages can be very powerful.
- Classified Advertising
Whether online or
offline, classified advertising can be used to drive traffic to one of your
lead capture pages or to an autoresponder address that automatically inserts
them into your prospecting system.
Click Here to
read more about Classified Advertising strategies.
- Press Releases
Press releases are a great
marketing technique you can use to pull in a lot of inquiries without spending
a single penny on advertising. Published press releases on the Internet also
rank very well in the search engines. Press release marketing is a low cost or
absolutely free way to build your business very quickly. You can use the same
technique as before to get email addresses. At the end of your press release,
offer your readers something for "free" if they respond to you via email or to
your lead capture web page.
- Word Of Mouth
Many times the people who
respond or have requested your "free report" will send or pass your message
along to their friends or family who they think may find it interesting. This
happens very frequently and to capitalize on this "message pushing" you should
make sure that you put a notice within your message. Usually this notice should
be typed at the bottom of the message. The statement should say something along
the lines of... "You are welcome to pass this message along to anyone who you
feel maybe interested".
Now, the next statement you make following the
first should be directed to the "new reader" who the message has been passed on
to. This statement should say something along the lines of... "If you were
passed on this message by a friend or relative and would like to receive
additional information on topics like this message, then email (your
autoresponder email address here) to subscribe". This statement opens the door
and invites them to "opt-in" to your list. Now you have gained another prospect
to market to and it didn't cost you a penny!
- Purchased email lists
One advantage of buying
warm leads through a leads system is they have already expressed "interest" in
a home based business. You don't need to convince these leads about being in a
business, what you need to do is to build trust or rapport with them as they
learn more about your opportunity. What these people want to know is if they
would like to do business with YOU. Can they trust you?
If you choose to
purchase leads they can work very well for you. But, there is always a
possibility that will get a "bad" list. The email leads business is unregulated
and the results vary widely. It's oftentimes difficult to know where the list
broker acquired the email addresses from. There are many honest list brokers
who build credible "targeted" opt-in lists and there are many others who will
simply "grab" email addresses off the Internet at "random".
If you end
up with a "random" list, the recipients of this list will not be happy when
they receive your email. You should also know that they will not complain to
the list broker's ISP; they have no clue who the list broker is and all the
complaints will fall on you. Guess what? They will complain to your ISP since
you are the person sending the "spam" and you will get in a lot of trouble -
perhaps even losing your Internet account.
If you go this route you will
want to use a reputable leads source and one that will disclose to you how they
acquire their leads. Stay away from anything that sells email addresses in bulk
especially CD-ROM's with millions of names burned on the disk! This spells
disaster and is a complete waste of money.
Here are some resources you
might use to purchase an email list...
- FOL Team Leads
Be sure to check with
your FOL sponsor and/or upline for information about any lead specials the team
has.
- Leaders Club
Leader's Club offers the best marketing
training I have ever seen. They provide a variety of great lead packages in
addition to world class training for the serious marketer. It's recommended you
first call these leads before loading them into an
alternative automated email system.
- List Building Services
Use one of these
services to advertise your eZine or email list and generate a steady increase
of interested subscribers.
- Opt-In Email List Rental
These systems
allow you to "rent" a highly targed opt-in email list to send one-time email
blasts. Opt-in permission-based email is a fast and effective way to market
your business because customers have given their consent and request to receive
information about products and services from companies like ours.
|
Support Menu
|
